title: Mismatch Negativity in essential tremor: role of age at onset in pre-attentive auditory discrimination.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether pre-attentive auditory discrimination is impaired in patients with essential tremor (ET) and to evaluate the role of age at onset in this function.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventeen non-demented patients with ET and seventeen age- and sex-matched healthy controls underwent an EEG recording during a classical auditory MMN paradigm.
  
  
  RESULTS
  MMN latency was significantly prolonged in patients with elderly-onset ET (>65 years) (p=0.046), while no differences emerged in either latency or amplitude between young-onset ET patients and controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study represents a tentative indication of a dysfunction of auditory automatic change detection in elderly-onset ET patients, pointing to a selective attentive deficit in this subgroup of ET patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The delay in pre-attentive auditory discrimination, which affects elderly-onset ET patients alone, further supports the hypothesis that ET represents a heterogeneous family of diseases united by tremor; these diseases are characterized by cognitive differences that may range from a disturbance in a selective cognitive function, such as the automatic part of the orienting response, to more widespread and complex cognitive dysfunctions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale dell'Università 30, 00185 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: caterina.pauletti@libero.it.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pauletti
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale dell'Università 30, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mannarelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale dell'Università 30, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Locuratolo
authors.affiliation: Centre for Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion (CNESPS), National Institute of Health (ISS), Via Giano della Bella 34, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vanacore
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale dell'Università 30, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: De Lucia
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Psychiatry, Sapienza University of Rome, Viale dell'Università 30, 00185 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fattapposta
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D020329:Essential Tremor / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: Age at onset; Attention; Auditory discrimination; Elderly-onset ET; Essential tremor; MMN